Drawer glide mount

ABSTRACT

A drawer glide mount for mounting a drawer glide to the interior surface of a drawer cabinet side wall which includes a pair of mounting tabs secured to the cabinet side wall having slots therein which receive complementary blade extensions on the drawer glide to provide locking engagement of the drawer glide with the drawer cabinet side wall.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to drawer glides and more particularly to themounting of drawer glides to the side wall of the drawer cabinet.

A typical drawer glide is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,205,025 andbasically includes an inner rail mounted to the drawer and an outer railmounted to the interior of the cabinet side wall with the two railsinterconnected for relative movement by a ball bearing intermediatemember generally referred to as a ball retainer. Many techniques havebeen employed to attach the outer rail member or race to the interior ofthe side wall of the drawer cabinet such as for example self tappingscrews or staking. In the case of self tapping screw mounting care mustbe taken so the screw is not stripped out of its hole due to therepetitive operation of the drawer and staking requires that great caremust be taken to provide good staking so that the stake remains in placeafter many cycles of the glide.

Since both of the prior art processes require care in assembling thedrawer glide to the cabinet side wall, assembly time during themanufacturer of the drawer takes longer than is desirable in providingan economic product. With mounting tabs prewelded to the cabinet sidewall or formed integrally therewith during the manufacture of the sidewall, the drawer glide mounting system of the present invention cansignificantly reduce assembly time and therefore manufacturing cost aswell as providing a relatively failure proof mount.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with the present invention a drawer glide is quickly andeasily assembled to the interior surface of the side wall of a drawercabinet through a simple key and keyslot locking system. The mounting ofa drawer glide to the interior surface of a drawer cabinet isaccomplished in accordance with the present invention by providing afirst mounting tab secured to the inner surface of a cabinet side walladjacent one end thereof which tab includes a keyslot in the outer edgethereof comprising an elongated slot of a first vertical dimension andan entrance opening of a lesser vertical dimension. A second mountingtab is secured to the inner surface of the cabinet side wall adjacent tothe other end thereof with the second mounting tab including a slottherethrough which has an upwardly and outwardly diverging side edge inits upper half and a downwardly and outwardly diverging opposite sideedge in its lower half. The ball bearing type drawer glide is providedwith blade extensions on each end thereof with one blade extensionhaving a stop member extending normal thereto while the other bladeextension has a pair of cutout notches in the top and bottom edgesforming a key, with the distance between the bottom edges of the notchesbeing of a dimension greater than the vertical dimension of the entranceopening in the first mounting tab but less than the vertical dimensionof the elongated slot. The first blade extension is inserted into theslot in the second mounting tab until the stop abuts the tab and theglide is rotated slightly to permit the key to enter the keyslot withsubsequent rotation back to the vertical of the glide and downwardmotion of the key in the elongated slot locking the glide to the wall ofthe cabinet.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

Many of the attendant advantages of the present invention will becomemore readily apparent and better understood as the following detaileddescription is considered in connection with the accompanying drawing inwhich:

FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 are perspective views illustrating sequentially themounting of a drawer glide to the interior surface of a drawer cabinetin accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view illustrating the key and keyslot of thedrawer glide and mounting tab; and

FIG. 5 is a front elevation view, partly in section, of the rearmounting tab and drawer cabinet side wall.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring now in detail to the drawings wherein like referencecharacters represent like parts throughout the several views, there isillustrated in FIGS. 1 through 3 the assembling of a drawer glidegenerally designated 10 to the side wall of a drawer cabinet generallydesignated 12. The drawer glide 10 includes an inner rail 14 and anouter rail 16 interconnected by a ball bearing carriage (not shown) andis essentially of the type shown and described in U.S. Pat. No.3,205,025 to Jordan. The conventional drawer glide is modified byproviding blade extensions on each end of the outer rail 16. At therearward end of the glide a planar blade extension 18 includes a stopmember 20 thereon extending perpendicular to the plane of the blademember 18. At the other end or front end of the glide the bladeextension 22 is somewhat wider than the blade extension 18 and includessquare cut notches 24 oppositely disposed in the upper and lower edgesof the blade portion 22. The bottoms 26 of the notches 24 are spacedapart a predetermined distance B and form a key, the operation of whichwill be later described.

The interior surface of the drawer cabinet is provided with a pair ofmounting tabs 28 and 30 which are mounted adjacent the rear and frontends of the drawer cabinet side wall respectively, but which couldobviously be reversed if the blades on the drawer glide were reversed.As can be best seen in FIG. 5, the rearward mounting tab 28 includes anelongated vertical slot 32 therethrough which has for the upper half ofthe slot on one side a side edge that diverges upwardly and outwardly toform a ramp 34 and on the other side in its lower half a side edge whichdiverges downwardly and outwardly to form a ramp 36.

The mounting tab 30 adjacent the front end of the cabinet side wallincludes a substantially C-shaped keyslot in the outer edge of the tabcomprising an elongated slot portion 38 having a vertical dimension Cand an entrance opening 40 to the elongated slot of a lesser verticaldimension A. The entrance opening 40 is shorter than the elongated slotportion 38 by the combined lengths of the longer, upper retaining lip 42and the shorter, lower retaining lip 44.

As best illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3, in order to mount the drawer glide10 to the cabinet side wall 12 the blade extension 18 is placed throughthe aperture 32 until the stop member 20 abuts the mounting tab 28. Theentire glide rail is rotated slightly until the blade extension 18 abutsthe ramps 34 and 36 which will now permit the upper notch 24 to pass theupper retaining lip 42 and enter the upper portion of the elongated slot38. The guide rail is now rotated toward the vertical (arrow FIG. 2)allowing the lower notch 24 to pass over the lower retaining lip 44 andinto a vertical position within the slot 38. The key 22 is then moveddownwardly in the slot 38 to lock the glide into the mounting tabs.Since the dimension B is g reater than the dimension A the key 22 is nowlocked in place behind the upper and lower retaining lips 42, 44. Theonly way that the key 22 can now be removed from the keyslot 38 is tomove the key into the longer upper portion of the slot 38 and rotate thekey back through the opening 40. Of course, this is not possible when adrawer is positioned and connected to a pair of inner glide rails 12 andthus disengagement of the glides from the mounting tabs is renderedimpossible once the drawer is assembled.

As will be seen from the foregoing the drawer glide mount of thisinvention provides for the quick and simple assembly of a drawer glideto the side wall of a drawer cabinet and provides a locking relationshipbetween the two that will not become loosened or defective duringthousands of cycles of the drawer moving in and out of the drawercabinet.

What is claimed is:
 1. A drawer glide mount for mounting a drawer glideto the interior surface of drawer casing side wall, said drawer glidemount comprising;front and rear mounting tabs secured to the interiorsurface of the side wall of said drawer casing adjacent the front andrear ends thereof, one of said mounting tabs including a slottherethrough and the other of said mounting tabs including a keyslot inthe side edge thereof, said keyslot comprising an elongated slot of afirst vertical dimension and an entrance opening of a lesser verticaldimension, and a drawer glide having a planar extension on one endthereof and an extension having cutout notches in the top and bottomedges thereof forming a drawer glide key therein on the other endthereof, the distance between the base of said notches in the top andbottom edges being greater than the entrance opening in said keyslotwhereby when said planar extension is inserted into said slot, saiddrawer glide key must be rotated into said keyslot for lockingengagement with said front and rear mounting tabs.
 2. The drawer glidemount according to claim 1 wherein said slot through one of said tabshas an outwardly and upwardly diverging side edge in its upper half anda downwardly and outwardly diverging side edge on the opposite side ofits lower half thereby permitting slight rotation of said planarextension within said slot.
 3. The drawer glide mount according to claim2 wherein stop means are provided on said planar extension extendingnormal thereto for controlling the depth of insertion of said planarextension into said slot.
 4. A drawer glide mount for mounting a drawerglide to the interior surface of a drawer cabinet, said drawer glidemount comprising:a first mounting tab secured to the inner surface ofthe cabinet side wall adjacent one end thereof, said first mounting tabincluding a keyslot in the outer edge thereof, said keyslot comprisingan elongated slot of a first vertical dimension and an entrance openingof a lesser vertical dimension; a second mounting tab secured to theinner surface of the cabinet side wall adjacent the other end thereof,said second mounting tab including a slot therethrough, said slot insaid second tab including an upwardly and outwardly diverging side edgein its upper half and a downwardly and outwardly diverging opposite sideedge in its lower half; a ball bearing type drawer glide having bladeextensions on each end thereof, one of said blade extensions having astop member extending normal thereto and the other of said bladeextensions having cutout notches in the top and bottom edges thereofforming a key, the distance between the bottom edges of said notchesbeing of a dimension greater than the vertical dimension of saidentrance opening in said keyslot but less than the vertical dimension ofsaid elongated slot whereby said one of said blade extensions isinserted into said slot in said second mounting tab until said stopabuts said tab and said glide is rotated slightly to permit said key toenter said keyslot with subsequent rotation back to the vertical of saidglide and downward motion of said key in said elongated slot lockingsaid guide to the wall of said cabinet.